Chapter 67
Chapter 67: Sister Lan’s Connections! Randomly Scaring People to Death
Where did this dyed-blonde girl come from, and how dare she shove herself into his business with Lin Wei Lan?
Didn’t she see that even Lin Qing Wen and his wife didn’t dare breathe?
The middle-aged man’s stare turned sharp and icy, weighing Ye Wan Lan up from head to toe. His smile never reached his eyes.
“Old Madam,” he said at last, voice sweet with menace, “since when did you have a granddaughter? Why have I never heard of this?”
“A Lan?” Lin Wei Lan startled, then coughed hard. “Cough, cough… Why did you come at this time? Dinner’s already ready. Go eat first. You don’t need to deal with this.”
“If I don’t,” Ye Wan Lan said evenly, “and you get worked up again, what will you do when you can’t sleep tonight?”
Her tone stayed calm—almost gentle. “What kind of person is worth you risking your health just to negotiate? In my eyes, not a single one.”
Lin Wei Lan’s bitter smile trembled at the corners. “My body…”
She knew her own condition. Even if the Tai Yi Palace master were reborn, there would be no saving it.
All she could do was endure as long as she could—hold on until the younger generation finished high school and entered university, so she could finally rest.
The middle-aged man let out a cold laugh. “So the Lin Family has juniors this ill-mannered, huh? Rude to a customer, right to my face. Looks like you truly don’t intend to negotiate.”
“Customers should be treated with courtesy,” Ye Wan Lan agreed, smiling.
Then she kept her voice just as soft as she continued, “But wolves watching the Lin Family, waiting to swallow it whole…”
Her smile deepened. “I’ll shoot him, peel off his skin, cut him apart for public display, and hang him on the city gate as a warning.”
Mr. Luo’s expression twisted, as if she’d ripped his thoughts straight out into the open. “You—”
A few seconds later, he laughed, furious. “Fine. I’ll talk to you. Answer me one thing first: do you know Spirit-Congealing Grass? Do you know what it does?”
Ye Wan Lan’s expression didn’t change. “What is Spirit-Congealing Grass?”
“You don’t even know what Spirit-Congealing Grass is, and you want to negotiate with me?” Mr. Luo finally snapped. “Is there anything you actually understand?”
“A Lan,” Lin Wei Lan said hoarsely, “Spirit-Congealing Grass is a rare herb. Its growing conditions are extremely harsh, and it absolutely cannot bloom. The moment it blooms, it loses all medicinal properties and becomes an ordinary wildflower.”
Ye Wan Lan nodded once. “I understand.”
So this was Spirit-Congealing Grass?
Three hundred years ago, it had been nothing more than landscaping grass in the Tai Yi Palace. Back then it hadn’t even had a name. No wonder she’d never heard of it.
Spirit-Congealing Grass did what its name implied: it calmed the mind and gathered qi.
The Tai Yi Palace had used it as the most ordinary kind of greenery—steadying the hearts of Tai Yi healers, and preventing them from losing control while refining medicine.
But that war three hundred years ago had wiped the Tai Yi Palace from the world. The herb gardens burned, and countless medicinal plants were uprooted.
And so, even Spirit-Congealing Grass had become rare in modern times.
Mr. Luo rose to his feet. “Old Madam, I respect you, so I won’t waste any more words.”
His gaze turned cold. “We’ll stick to the agreed time. Not a second of extension. Seven days from now, at this exact hour, I must see Spirit-Congealing Grass.”
He stormed out without sparing Lin Qing Wen and Madam Lin a glance, ignoring their frantic attempts to stop him.
Madam Lin slammed her palm onto the table and shot to her feet. “Ye Wan Lan, what are you doing?! Do you know you ruined everything the moment you walked in?”
Her voice shook with rage. “Old Madam was negotiating perfectly. We could’ve extended the deadline. Why did you have to step in? Are you trying to force us into a dead end?”
If they couldn’t produce Spirit-Congealing Grass within the agreed time, the entire River City Lin Family—including the old residence they lived in—would be handed over.
Madam Lin had lived in silk and jewels for too long. She couldn’t accept falling from luxury into poverty.
Ye Wan Lan ignored her.
Only after she watched Lin Wei Lan finish an entire cup of tea did Ye Wan Lan let her gaze sweep across the living room.
“Who negotiated this client?” she asked calmly.
Lin Wei Lan was the head of the household. She wouldn’t have made such a simple mistake.
“What does that have to do with you?” Madam Lin snapped, humiliation sharpening her anger. “What matters is you’ve already made things worse!”
Ye Wan Lan’s tone stayed gentle, almost soft. “I asked who negotiated. I didn’t ask you to speak. Close your mouth.”
The room seemed to tighten.
An invisible pressure descended like a tidal wave—cold authority, heavy enough to bend a spine.
In that moment, it felt as if a monarch had returned.
Madam Lin’s rage flared higher, but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out.
“I-it was me…” Lin Qing Wen’s eyes darted. “I was tricked too, Mom. I really wasn’t trying to—if I’d known their target was the Lin Family, I never would’ve…”
“So it was Second Uncle.” Ye Wan Lan nodded slightly. “A classic failure. A textbook example of stupidity. I can understand.”
Madam Lin slammed the table again. “Ye Wan Lan! Do you have any upbringing at all? How can you talk like that?!”
“Enough,” Lin Wei Lan said coldly. “What did A Lan say that was wrong? You were fooled into signing a contract and you think a few apologies erase it?”
Her gaze cut like ice. “You’re in your forties or fifties and still this brainless.”
With Lin Wei Lan speaking, Madam Lin finally went silent.
Lin Qing Wen swallowed and tried again, cautious as a mouse. “Mom… why don’t you go back to the main family for help? With their relationship to the Yun Jing Su Family, getting a single Spirit-Congealing Grass shouldn’t be difficult…”
“Don’t even think about it!” Lin Wei Lan barked, voice suddenly fierce. “If you want to crawl back, then you go back on your own.”
Lin Qing Wen shrank back, not daring to speak again.
“Grandmother,” Ye Wan Lan said, cutting through the tension, “I’ll help you upstairs to rest.”
She didn’t allow refusal. “Spirit-Congealing Grass is my problem. I’ll handle it.”
Lin Wei Lan didn’t want to look at Lin Qing Wen and Madam Lin another second. She closed her eyes and exhaled. “A Lan. Let’s go upstairs.”
Downstairs, Lin Qing Wen and Madam Lin stared at each other, both seeing the same panic reflected in the other’s eyes.
“What do we do now?” Madam Lin hissed. “That Ye Wan Lan comes back and instantly causes a disaster. She came back to split the Lin Family apart, didn’t she?”
Lin Qing Wen’s face twisted with regret. “I shouldn’t have signed the contract. I never thought their target was the Lin Family.”
“What does it have to do with you?” Madam Lin forced her voice calmer, though her nails dug into her palm. “You signed it for the Lin Family’s sake. It’s Ye Wan Lan who doesn’t know her place—she even said she can find Spirit-Congealing Grass. Before today, she didn’t even know what it was!”
Without returning to the main family, there was no way they could get it.
Did she think Spirit-Congealing Grass grew like cabbage?
“She just said it to make Old Madam happy,” Lin Qing Wen snapped. “And Mom falls for it every time. She probably already believes Ye Wan Lan can produce Spirit-Congealing Grass.”
“No.” Madam Lin’s mind raced. “We can’t let this go on…”
If the Lin Family fell this time, she wouldn’t go down with it.
—
Upstairs, in Lin Wei Lan’s bedroom, Ye Wan Lan checked Lin Wei Lan’s pulse.
Her gaze sank.
Lin Wei Lan had indeed been upset today; her pulse was chaotic.
“Grandmother,” Ye Wan Lan asked quietly, “what happened? Start from the beginning.”
Lin Wei Lan sighed. “The ‘client’ Qing Wen signed with is actually a small supplier providing medicinal materials to the Global Center. He’s pushed us out as a target. The ties involved in this matter… are very large.”
Ye Wan Lan nodded thoughtfully. “So their real goal is to force you back to the main family.”
“Yes,” Lin Wei Lan said, voice low. “A Lan… do you blame me? I could go back, but I refuse to.”
“How could I blame you?” Ye Wan Lan shook her head. “If you don’t go back, it means the main family makes you uncomfortable. Why return to a place that makes you uncomfortable?”
Lin Wei Lan went still. “But Spirit-Congealing Grass…”
“Grandmother, don’t worry.” Ye Wan Lan’s tone was unhurried, certain. “Leave it to me. Rest well. In seven days, Spirit-Congealing Grass will be delivered.”
After she soothed Lin Wei Lan to sleep, Ye Wan Lan stepped out and opened the Private Side Chat.
[YN]: Spirit-Congealing Grass—who has it?
The moment the message appeared, replies poured in as if the entire group had been waiting for her to speak.
[Ghost Bro]: What is that? Never heard of it.
[World’s Richest]: Don’t ask me about anything under 10 million. I would never know.
[Scholar]: It’s a kind of grass.
[Crazy Scientist]: Can it be used as fuel to make rockets fly faster? If yes, give me one stalk.
Ye Wan Lan pinched the bridge of her nose.
What kind of strange people had she ended up knowing?
She closed the group chat and, after a moment’s thought, contacted Su Xue Qing directly.
[Ye Wan Lan]: Xue Qing, have you heard of Spirit-Congealing Grass?
[Su Xue Qing]: Spirit-Congealing Grass? What happened?
[Ye Wan Lan]: I need it urgently.
[Su Xue Qing]: I don’t have any on me, but I have a way to get it. There’s a difficulty, though. You must have a specially blended medicine to suppress blooming. If it blooms, the Spirit-Congealing Grass is ruined.
[Ye Wan Lan]: Thank you. Don’t worry about the medicine. I have it.
[Su Xue Qing]: You have it? But that formula is only held by the Su Family—the council of elders has it.
[Ye Wan Lan]: Mm. I have it. See you tomorrow.
Su Xue Qing stared at that last message for a long time, sleep nowhere in sight.
What kind of person was her deskmate?
How could she know a formula so tightly controlled?
The next morning, Su Xue Qing showed up to class with dark circles under her eyes, her whole body looking wilted.
“Xue Qing…” Ye Wan Lan paused. “You didn’t sleep at all?”
“How could I sleep?” For once, Su Xue Qing’s usual calm cracked into agitation. “A Lan—how do you have the formula?”
She didn’t believe Ye Wan Lan would steal from the Su Family. Ye Wan Lan wasn’t that kind of person.
“I kept it from before,” Ye Wan Lan said simply. “Now we just need a Spirit-Congealing Grass.”
“Okay. No problem.” Su Xue Qing inhaled, forcing herself to focus. “My friend has a seedling. It’ll reach its blooming phase in five days. Is that enough time?”
“It’s enough.” Ye Wan Lan’s eyes narrowed slightly. Then she reached into her bag. “Xue Qing, take this. A thank-you for helping me find Spirit-Congealing Grass.”
She pulled out several sheets of paper and handed them over.
The pages were worn and slightly wrinkled, clearly old.
“What is this? You don’t have to…” Su Xue Qing took them anyway—and froze when her gaze landed at the top.
Four large words, plain and straightforward:
“Tai Yi Divine Needle.”